The Mother

Agenda

Volume 10

November 22, 1969

(Satprem gives his pension to Mother)

You give money just like that! But don't you need any?

No, no, Mother!

Here it's an abyss, money goes away like...

I have something for next February: I “received” certain things regarding money and what's going on there, in Delhi.¹ The government is shaky; so far, things are all right. Everything tends towards the dissolution of the Congress, but that was foreseen and willed. But then, the Congress president² is on one side and the prime minister is on the other, each looking at the other... Anyway, I think things will work out. But all that is mostly because of money: the most powerful party against the present government, against Indira, is that of financiers. They're furious. So then, in this connection, I took up again what I had said long ago:

Money is not meant to make money, money is meant to prepare the earth for the new creation.

And I added this (it's already gone to Delhi):

The men of finance and the businessmen have been offered the possibility to collaborate with the future, but most of them refuse, convinced that money is stronger than the future.

Thus, the future will crush them with its irresistible power.

I wrote it in French before putting it into English, but in French, I spoke directly to the financiers:

(translation)

To financiers and businessmen

You have been offered the possibility of collaborating with the future, but you have thought that the power of money is stronger than that of the future. And the future will crush you with its irresistible power.

But that's a first version, I intend to rewrite it. In English, I put “most of them refuse...”

The French is more combative.

A little too combative. Some have accepted to collaborate, so I wouldn't like them to say I'm going on announcing catastrophes for them!

Yes, obviously, it's a bit threatening.

Yes, too threatening. We'll translate the English.

(Mother translates into French)

Now, something else. These days, I am writing a lot of notes about children's education. I have been asked, “What should we do?...” Some children are wicked, with a wickedness... really unbelievable inventions, they [the teachers] don't know what to do. So I wrote a lot of things, but among them, one, I think, is important:

“A child must cease to be wicked because he learns to be ashamed of being wicked, not because he fears a punishment ....

That's the first step. Once he reaches it, then he can progress one more step and learn the happiness of being good, the joy of being good. But that I didn't write.

“In the first case, he progresses; in the second he goes down one rung in human consciousness.

“Fear is a degradation of human consciousness.”

I think that's very important. Because EVERYWHERE, people are convinced that punishment is what... Horrible!

I get multitudes of questions of that sort – it's I who gives them to me, and I write in her notebook. I don't know what she'll do with it .... There are some things I'd like to revise; for instance, sometimes I use slightly easier words for her to understand – we could put the true word instead. But for that, I'd have to revise it.

I could see it, if you like?

But I dare not ask her! I don't know if she would give it to me.³

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*   *

Soon afterwards

What you said last time [on the supramental Consciousness] might be used for “Notes on the Way”?

(Mother opens her eyes wide) I don't know... I don't know.

I've just learned that others are beginning to feel. Do you know Dr. V? He was the head of the hospital here for a long time. He got very interested in A.R. [the healer], very interested, and I think that hastened something in him, so that for a few nights he's had “phenomena” which I've, myself had lots of times, but I knew what it was and wasn't alarmed. But he's a doctor (!) and was a little alarmed. It's a sort of discomfort with the heart – it can't be called a pain: it's a discomfort, followed by intense perspiration. I had one this morning again – maybe because I was trying to see what's going on in him (I was told about it yesterday, and I tried to see if it was that). That may be why I got that, I don't know. It may be because there was still something...

I told you several times, the organs are “supported” in their functioning by the forces of Nature, and in this process of transformation, the forces of Nature are withdrawn and replaced with the divine Presence. But you understand, there comes a moment when there is a gap [between the old functioning and the new] – it may be imperceptible, but still it has an effect; a moment comes when there is an anguish. And then, some things are only partially transformed; so one part, then another part, then yet another part are taken up in succession, and since the heart is a very important thing, I am convinced it takes place very slowly. As a result, one often experiences the same thing, more or less strongly. The calmer one is, the more trusting one is, the more one is in the true attitude, and the less strong it is – the consequences are less strong. But still, there is a consequence, and he was taken by surprise, he didn't know what it was.

But it interested me. What A.R. said, “To be entirely governed by the divine Consciousness,” appealed to him a lot, it's an approach he understood. He must have tried, and that's the result. I saw other people who had pains, but that one is more “alarming.” Others have pains here or there or... but when it touches the heart, people start being more alarmed. But in several cases, I saw that this Force doesn't act only here [in Mother]: it acts in others. And always, always, the moment of transition (it may be very brief, or it may take some time) is a bit... difficult. One needs to be forewarned.

I've seen that everywhere: the moment of transition in other functionings is sometimes unpleasant, but not so alarming; there [with the heart], people are generally... they're a bit scared! He is a very strong man, he wasn't afraid; he sent me a line asking me, if this was the sign that he must go, to prepare him to go as he should.

But that has happened to me any number of times. If one isn't afraid, it's nothing.

(Sujata:) Mother, why does it happen at night, most of the time?

Because one is lying down!

(Satprem to Sujata:) Have you felt something at night?

(Sujata:) Last night I had the same thing, and I perspired.

Because at night, you're resting and passive, that is to say, more receptive. During the day, one is more active, less receptive.

Trust, you know: being aware that it's a higher intervention – trust first of all. Then, perfect surrender: “What You will” – let the body, in full sincerity, be ready for anything. And then, that sort of perfect peace that comes from surrender: one is like this (Mother opens her arms). Those are the best conditions.

One should avoid emotions and all those things.

But the more sincere one is – the more sincere the body is – the more it's truly ready for anything: it has given itself entirely and... what will happen will happen, that's all. And it's really like this: “What You WILL, what You will I shall do, whatever it may be – I am not even asking to know.” Then it's in peace and things go fast enough.

Anxiety brings about a vibration which isn't good.

(silence)

That's how it is, one thing and another, one thing and another... But then, there's the old way which is less and less strong, and the new which is stronger and stronger. In other words, the one is the whole sense and consciousness of instability, uncertainty, fragility -impermanence (it's really something devoid of any true solidity); while the other is the sense of Permanence (Mother stretches out her arms) and... progression without fall, like that, in something that's vast and... such a powerful movement that it's immobile, giving a sense of immobility So one is like this (gesture of swinging from one state to the other).

This morning, I remembered what I told you last Wednesday (not remembered what I said: remembered the STATE I told you about). And then, the body was like this (gesture of intense aspiration), oh, saying, “This Consciousness, this Consciousness, this Consciousness...” It wanted it, you know, intensely, and there was such a clear perception of what prevents it from being there .... What prevents is a “concentric” vibration, a sort of concentric vibration, meaning that instead of being like this (Mother opens her arms), in an infinite Eternity, things are seen in relation to oneself. That's what prevents.

(silence)

One must really reach the state in which... one doesn't care about living and one doesn't care about not living: absolutely indifferent – it's not indifference, it's a... what should I call it? A peaceful and... unquestioning acceptance. And above all, above all, no alarm.

You see, the movement of surrender is a preliminary movement (the movement of surrender is total and constant), well, it's a preliminary movement; there's another movement in which one no longer has anything to surrender! It's like that, it's quite natural.

(silence)

I see lots and lots of people, and the body notices that even those with the best goodwill don't understand – a total and general incomprehension of the condition it is in.

And then, some really amusing things all the time, all the time, every minute .... For an extremely long time it hasn't felt offended anymore, an extremely long time, but there was still a time when it would see, perceive incomprehension as a ridiculous thing or... an ignorance. Now that's over. Now... For a long time, every time it used to ask, “Ah! What do You want me to learn?” Now that too is past. Because as soon as something comes (what Sri Aurobindo called the old man), something left from the old personality, which shows up like that, the body doesn't need anything to see the truth instantly: it appears profoundly ridiculous.

*
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Soon afterwards

Did you have something to ask?... Nothing to say?... No?... What? (Mother laughs)

I was wondering about what you told me some two weeks ago. You spoke about writing a new book. And you said it should “crystallize the next step, the intermediary...”

Yes.

I was wondering in what direction that book should be: would it be a book about you, as I wrote the Adventure about Sri Aurobindo?

Oh, no, not about me! Please, it makes my work so much more complicated when people think of me.

So would it be simply a sequel to the “Adventure of Consciousness,” but more developed? What should it be?

If it could be a vision of what will be – I would like you to have that. A vision of the next step.

Very far ahead, one does see the possibility (as you yourself said) of a “materialization,” but between now and then, there is something .... Lately I've discovered a great deal of things while looking in that direction. I saw (I don't know if I noted that, I think I forgot to write it), I saw that with most people who have children almost without wanting it, “just like that,” for them it's a sort of... (naturally, many women desire to have children, but without even knowing what it means), for the VAST majority of educated people, that is to say, whose heads have been stuffed full of ideas about the faults one mustn't have, the qualities one must have and so on, all that they repressed in their beings, all the bad, pernicious instincts, it all comes out [in the child]. I remembered (I observed and saw), I remembered something I read very, very long ago; I think it was by Renan, he wrote somewhere that one should beware of parents who are good and very respectable, because... (laughing) birth is a “purge”! And he also said: observe carefully the children of bad people, because those often are a reaction! So then, after that, after my experience, when I saw, I said to myself, “But that man was right!” For people, it's a way of purging themselves. They throw out of themselves all that they don't want. There are some children here... horrid! And that's it, you wonder, “How come? Their parents are very good people....” It's very interesting, because it gives the KEY of what should be done – by showing you what shouldn't be done, it gives you the key of what should be done.

In that case, this “prenatal education” Y speaks of isn't a falsehood after all. It's something that may be true.

The children, those who are a few months old (as I said, those who were born in Auroville) are remarkable-they're remarkable. I thought it was just one case, but in all those I've seen till now, all of them, a concentration of consciousness.

That little Tamil was a marvel.

So in sum, what should be written is the making or the preparation of the Superman?

Yes, yes, exactly. Exactly.

Have you seen this (Mother points to the just released booklet, “The Great Sense”)? This is going to be very useful – so a sequel to it, you understand?

Yes, but still in the form of a book?

Yes, yes.

The development of consciousness that leads to ...

A book... it could be a story, that I don't know. But then people wouldn't take it so seriously!

It would be the same genre as the “Adventure of Consciousness”?

Ah, you know, it's a growing success.

Yes, my publisher wrote to me; he says it's picking up and wants to reprint it.

Ah!

He writes, “The press hasn't said a word about your book, yet it's selling well!”

It's not the press! (Laughing) It's the consciousness!

Ah, no, your publishing fellow must understand that it doesn't belong to the past, that all the methods of the past have become worthless.

In America, the book has a tremendous success.

Yes, one feels quite evidently the consciousness that's behind this book and touches people, because all of them have the same reaction: all of them, everywhere, at all levels, the more intellectual as much as the less intellectual.

Yes, as in A.R.'s case, for instance.

On the other hand, the “Sannyasin” appears to be lost....⁴

Lost?

I don't know.

You know, I'll tell you very frankly: it's very interesting, but it made me sad.

Why?

Why I don't know.

The “Sannyasin”? What made you sad?

The book, what you read me .... It's very interesting, I was very interested, I felt very comfortable, but then there was a sort of... it's something that puts you (I don't know why) in contact with the whole part of the atmosphere that pulls you out of life – Buddhism and all those things, the whole nihilism. It puts you in contact with that: the flight out of life. And it's not intellectual, it's not the ideas, not the words, not the facts, it's... What is it? I wondered a few times what made the book catch on to the nihilist atmosphere of Buddhism? That's what would explain... It's not that people don't like it, but... it's a non-creative force that acts. Why? I don't know.

But what this book tried to say, to show, is in fact the transition beyond that.

Yes, but... Perhaps people aren't ready? Now, I didn't read it in full, so I can't know. You only read me a few passages. But it's not so much the words, you understand, it was the vision.

But since I read you those passages, I rewrote it. I wrote the book again after I read it to you.

You didn't show it to me, that's it.

But when F took it up, I for one felt it was going to succeed.⁵

Ah, then we just have to wait.

(long silence)

Don't you feel in you the soul of a prophet?

I feel in me the soul I'm given!

(Mother laughs) I'd like a beautiful prophetic book.

It's there somewhere: what's going to take place here is ALREADY there somewhere. It's not in a region where one “sees,” it's... (gesture showing the world of consciousness).

My impression is that you can write it.

(Satprem opens his hands)

We'll see.

I'll try to put myself in the atmosphere.

Yes – no! I've just seen: it's all right! (Mother laughs)

¹ Indira Gandhi has just been expelled from the Congress by the syndicate of financiers.

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² Nijalingappa.

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³ As unbelievable as it may appear, Mother did not dare to ask her own disciples, knowing the storms that would give rise to. Thus Satprem could never recover the notes written by Mother. Even the words changed by Mother herself were later reintroduced.

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⁴ The manuscript has been in Paris for a year.

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⁵ It will take another four years, then for some fifteen years this unfortunate Sannyasin will fall victim to an unscrupulous Indian “publisher” who will use Auroville's name as a cover for his own affairs.

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